Decision time
14th July 2021 Feature
One of Europe’s most hotly contested fighter competitions has proceeded to the Best and Final Offer stage, with Finland having to balance cost, capability and local industry ahead of a decision by the end of 2021. Richard Thomas explores the programme and its participants
Finland is looking to begin replacing its F/A-18 C/D fighter fleet before the middle of the decade, with a decision as to which aircraft will replace it due before the end of the year
US DoD
With the final entries included for Finland’s landmark HX Fighter Programme – which will introduce a new combat air platform into service to replace the existing F/A-18 C/D Hornet fleet – industry will now revert to a waiting game ahead of a decision by the prospective customer in late-2021.
Finland Seeks Best and Final Offer for HX Fighter Jets with April Deadline Our Bureau 4670
Finnish Air Force HX Fighter Procurement
The Finnish Defence Forces Logistics Command sent the Request for Best and Final Offer (BFO) for the HX Fighter Programme today to replace its ageing F-18 Hornet aircraft.
The Request for BFO concerns the following multi-role fighters and their related systems and weapons: Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet (United States), Dassault Rafale (France), Eurofighter Typhoon (Great Britain), Lockheed Martin F-35 (United States) and Saab Gripen (Sweden).
The deadline for finalized tenders is 30 April 21 while the government will decide on the procurement at the end of 2021.
HX Challenge completed successfully Press release
The HX Challenge has been completed successfully. Finnish Air Force HX Fighter Programme Director, Colonel Juha-Pekka Keränen analyses the testing and evaluation event in this article.
Finnish Air Force HX Fighter Programme Director, Colonel Juha-Pekka Keränen. Photo: Finnish Defence Forces.
The HX Challenge was defined in the Request for Quotations (RFQ) as one out of the three opportunities for the candidates to demonstrate their capabilities and the validity of the information presented in their responses to the RFQ. For us working in the HX Fighter Programme, the HX Challenge was perhaps the most important of these three opportunities because the event was entirely in our own control and we were able to provide a fair and balanced testing environment in Finland for all the five categories of operations itemised in the RFQ.